The building of a champion - where did it begin and where does it end?
"I think we all remember the meeting on Dec. 28, 1988," said Washington Coach Don James, "where we committed to doing whatever it would take to get better."We were all tired of mediocrity. I know coaching a 6-5 team wasn't much fun for me."
Ed Cunningham, the starting center on the unbeaten 1991 team, was a redshirt freshman during the non-bowl 1988 season.
"I was so disillusioned by things I was ready to pack up and go home to Virginia," he said. "It was at that time that Coach James really put his foot down and gave the program new leadership and direction."
While the players lifted weights and ran sprints, James undertook one of the most difficult tasks of his career. He fired an assistant coach.
To understand how devoted James is to his coaches, he wants one of them to succeed him. Not one who used to coach with him - a Skip Hall or a Jim Mora - but someone on this staff.
In many ways, the decline of the 1980s could be traced to the success of the late '70s and early '80s, and the subsequent loss of key assistants, such as Mora and Hall and Bob Stull and Ray Dorr and Chick Harris.
Even though a new staff was maturing by 1988, James was not happy with an offensive line that, despite its size and strength, continually underachieved, or with an offense that wasn't productive despite an endless string of very good quarterbacks.
In one move, he fired line coach Dan Dorazio and hired Keith Gilbertson, the head coach at the University of Idaho.
"I remember when the coach called," Gilbertson said. "All he said was, `I want you to take the chalk."'
James and his offensive coordinator then, Gary Pinkel, quickly embraced the wide-open style of Gilbertson. It was almost the same offense Dennis Erickson had used at Washington State when the Cougars won the 1988 Apple Cup.
Mario Bailey went through the change, too.
"We just weren't going to make it with the old offense," he said. "No way. Once Coach Gilbertson got here, everything changed."
For reasons not entirely clear, the Huskies could recruit one top quarterback after another but could not get the great tailback.
Once they switched to Gilbertson's spread passing game, Greg Lewis blossomed, with Jay Barry and Beno Bryant to follow. Quickness, speed, vision and an ability to catch were the compelling traits of the new backs. When Lewis showed he could gain 1,000 yards in a passing offense, the Huskies were able to recruit the likes of Napoleon Kaufman.
They opened the 1989 season with a 19-6 victory over nationally ranked Texas A&M.
"You could see right there things were changing," Bailey said.
But it took more than just a new offensive guru. It took better athletes, and then the commitment to use them both on special teams and defense.
James also made a decision that speed in every facet of Husky football was more important than heft.
Washington's lack of speed was underscored on national television Christmas Day, 1986, as Alabama linebacker Cornelius Bennett raced past Washington's 300-pound tackle, Kevin Gogan, time after time to pressure quarterback Chris Chandler. Bennett led Alabama to a 28-6 win with 11 tackles.
Publicly, James said there was nothing plodding about the Huskies. He even resented the charge. Privately, he chastised his assistant coaches for bringing in too many athletes who didn't have the speed as advertised.
"I just got tired of seeing a guy run 4.8 when he was supposed to run 4.6," James said. "We had to get verified times."
A couple of things were changing. One was the impact of recruiting coordinator Dick Baird, who unlike other people in that position for James, was a coach with true talent-assessment skills.
Another was the popularity of the summer Husky football camp where coaches could use their own watches to time athletes.
In that 1987 class, the first after the Sun Bowl, it is significant that Dana Hall was the California state high-school high hurdle champion, that Chico Fraley won his league intermediate hurdle championship, that linebacker Donald Jones was a respectable 200 meters runner, that Orlando McKay ranked sixth nationally in the prep 400 meters, that Aaron Pierce had the second best prep decathlon mark as a high-school senior.
More speed was to follow. No high-school back in California was faster than Beno Bryant, no receiver in the West a better all-around athlete than Mario Bailey. Andy Mason was second in the Washington state-meet 100 meters.
The Huskies limped through the 1987 season with a record of 7-4-1, beating WSU and wrangling an invitation to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., where they practiced on a wind-blown high-school field.
The next spring, James visited the University of Miami, his alma mater, at the invitation of Coach Jimmy Johnson. He left overwhelmed by Miami's talent, especially its speed. He says he came away convinced that only one of his players - offensive tackle Mike Zandofsky - could start for Miami.
All was not doom and gloom after that 6-5 season in 1988, which stopped Washington's streak of going to bowls. Despite the program's being at its nadir under James, the best player in the state - and a quarterback to boot - committed to Washington. Billy Joe Hobert said he would be a Husky, no recruiting visits required.
The new offense made 1989 an interesting season. It allowed the Huskies to come from 21 points behind to beat UCLA in Los Angeles.
But the final - and most important - piece to the puzzle didn't fall into place until a damp, dark night in Corvallis.
The week after beating UCLA, the Huskies lost 34-32 to Arizona State in Seattle. They gave up nearly 500 yards. The defense was awful.
In looking at films of USC's dominance, the key figure was always Junior Seau, the pass-rushing outside linebacker. Jim Lambright thought he might have a Junior Seau on his team.
Against Oregon State, Lambright turned Donald Jones loose, and his bull rushes didn't end until he tossed Elvis Grbac of Michigan down twice in the 1992 Rose Bowl.
Lambright was on to pressure. He unleashed Fraley, Emtman, Travis Richardson, James Clifford and Brett Collins. He moved Jaime Fields from safety to linebacker. The rush was on.
The Huskies held Emmitt Smith to 17 yards as they squashed Florida 34-7 in the Freedom Bowl to end 1989, and a defense that was to change the face of college football was born.